Do you vacation when you have bills?

[disneydreamersx4]

Update post #15

We want to go back to Disney in 2011, we have credit card bills and medical bills. We've vacationed before when we have bills but this time I'm having a hard time justifying the trip because I feel bad for DH being the only one working and how hard it must be to see bills come in and not being paid off. He does a good job at paying them down and I help out by watching the shopping. We always use our income tax refund to pay for Disney but that money could be used to pay down the bills. The reason we might take the trip is the kids will be little only once, we're all healthy right now so why not take the trip and enjoy it while you can?

 

[Robinrs]

You can vacation on a budget or outrageously. I've gone to Orlando on a shoestring and I've gone on a whirlwind. I think if you go on a budget, knowing your limitations and can continue paying your bills on time, you can do it.

 

[DawnM]

Family memories do not have to be expensive.

When I was teaching a parenting seminar to parents at our school I asked them to share what special memories they had of their parents and grandparents while they were growing up. Noone mentioned the expensive trips, they all talked about special TIME they spent with their parents and grandparents.

I have no idea what your actual financial situation is, or how much you owe or how much you make and how long it will take to pay off the bills, but taking a year or two off from expensive vacations will NOT land your children in therapy, I promise!

Dawn

 

[mjkacmom]

No - we did go camping in May, but I can't justify a vacation when there is debt. Sure, my kids like to go on vacation, but they also love family game night.

 

[honeydiane1953]

Yes when is world would one not have bills? Now with that being said I do NOT use credit cards. Learned that lesson a looooong time ago.

 

[disneydreamersx4]

The problem is there is bills to be paid and we want to take a vacation, we don't go on expensive vacations that much, last time to Disney was in 2007. If it were not for our income tax refund to pay for the trip completely we would not be going.

 

[DawnM]

I think the question is not when would one not have bills, but when would one not have debt. Those are two very different things.

Dawn

Yes when is world would one not have bills? Now with that being said I do NOT use credit cards. Learned that lesson a looooong time ago.

 

[Marionnette]

We want to go back to Disney in 2011, we have credit card bills and medical bills. We've vacationed before when we have bills but this time I'm having a hard time justifying the trip because I feel bad for DH being the only one working and how hard it must be to see bills come in and not being paid off. He does a good job at paying them down and I help out by watching the shopping. We always use our income tax refund to pay for Disney but that money could be used to pay down the bills. The reason we might take the trip is the kids will be little only once, we're all healthy right now so why not take the trip and enjoy it while you can?

Im sorry to hear about the medical bills. Thank goodness everyone is healthy now. I hope that remains the case. I dont know that I couldnt justify spending money on a disney vacation when there was considerable debt and my husband was stressing out over paying it down. Yes the kids are only young for a little while. But to me that isnt a good reason to spend thousands on a week of recreation. You can enjoy vacation time with them without spending that kind of money. Go camping. Take them to the zoo. Or a local childrens play. Or a summer music festival. Make cookies together. Or churn ice cream. Theres so much that you can do to create memories. My kids are young adults now. And I guarantee you that not every fond childhood memory was forged in disney. And we went alot!

 

[bettymae1121]

DH and I have vacationed while having debt, but with the exception of our honeymoon, they've all been more on the budget side of things. Yes, we could have paid down more of our debt instead but this was just how we decided to do it. Once we are debt free though, we're taking one heck of a trip to celebrate!

If you don't have any type of emergency savings, I'd probably not travel but as long as you have suficient financial back up, to me there is nothing wrong witha budget vacation. That may mean very bare bones WDW trip or it may mean pitching a borrowed tent at a local camp ground, only you know what "budget" is, given your circumstance.

Also, both of you need to be comfortable spending money on a trip, if either of you are stressing out over the very idea of spending money on anything other than debt paydown, then the trip isn't worth it since at least one of you won't be able to enjoy it, anyway.

 

[crusoe2]

I don't think that having a few bills that you are working on is, in itself, reason to not take the trip. Some of the things I would consider are:
1) Do you have an exorbitant amount of debt?
2) Can you pay cash for the trip and still afford to make your other payments on time?
3) Do you have some savings for emergencies that you won't have to touch in order to take the trip?

If your answer to the first question is no and to the others is yes, I'd say go and just make it a low-budget trip. Sometimes we need something fun in our lives to remind us why we work so hard the rest of the time.

ETA: I re-read your original post and I have to agree with PP - if your DH doesn't agree with taking the trip or you know that he would be completely stressed out by doing so, then no I wouldn't recommend going until the debt is taken care of. It doesn't matter how carefully you plan and budget, he won't enjoy the trip and that's bound to affect how much your kids enjoy it.

 

[eliza61]

We want to go back to Disney in 2011, we have credit card bills and medical bills. We've vacationed before when we have bills but this time I'm having a hard time justifying the trip because I feel bad for DH being the only one working and how hard it must be to see bills come in and not being paid off. He does a good job at paying them down and I help out by watching the shopping. We always use our income tax refund to pay for Disney but that money could be used to pay down the bills. The reason we might take the trip is the kids will be little only once, we're all healthy right now so why not take the trip and enjoy it while you can?

Sorry, that's a pretty poor excuse. IMO. I see it here all the time. Yes your kids are only young once but your kids want time as a family. that does not mean going on an expensive vacation and let's face it disney is expensive. first, are they going to turn into adults next year? why not pay off one of those bills this year and save to go in 2012?

Now in order to not be a hypocrite, yes I have gone on vacations with debt. No I have not gone to disney with credit card debt.
You yourself say the money could be use to pay down some bills. why not do that do that and plan some local day exursions with your kids.

Maybe it's just me, I just hate when people use that "we only live once" or "the kids are only little once" to make bad money decisions.

 

[marie1203]

No I wouldn't until I have paid off my debt. How much longer will it take you to pay your debt off if you go? If you do take the trip are you going to put it on credit? We don't have money in credit cards but we just cancel our Thanksgiving trip to florida because last month we had a lot of surprise expenses (we came back from SIL wedding and our washer machine broke, one of our dogs got is paw hurt while playing, we had to take another of our dogs to emergency vet from throwing up blood, 2 annual check ups for our dogs, our last dog got neutered, car registration for both of our cars) over $1000 of vet bills, and a broken washer that couldn't be repair so we had to buy a new one. We took money out of our emergency fund this month to pay all of the extras that we weren't counting on. If we skip the trip we will repay the money next month leaving December to be a normal month again which is what we want since it is Xmas and our anniversary. I think maybe you can come up with a plan of paying it off and how long it will take you and maybe have a celebration trip after?

 

[eliza61]

We want to go back to Disney in 2011, we have credit card bills and medical bills. We've vacationed before when we have bills but this time I'm having a hard time justifying the trip because I feel bad for DH being the only one working and how hard it must be to see bills come in and not being paid off. He does a good job at paying them down and I help out by watching the shopping. We always use our income tax refund to pay for Disney but that money could be used to pay down the bills. The reason we might take the trip is the kids will be little only once, we're all healthy right now so why not take the trip and enjoy it while you can?

Sorry, that's a pretty poor excuse. IMO. I see it here all the time. Yes your kids are only young once but your kids want time as a family. that does not mean going on an expensive vacation and let's face it disney is expensive. first, are they going to turn into adults next year? why not pay off one of those bills this year and save to go in 2012?

Now in order to not be a hypocrite, yes I have gone on vacations with debt. No I have not gone to disney with credit card debt.
You yourself say the money could be use to pay down some bills. why not do that do that and plan some local day exursions with your kids.

Maybe it's just me, I just hate when people use that "we only live once" or "the kids are only little once" to make bad money decisions.

Hey think how great it will feel if you delay the trip 1 year and get a few things paid off.

 

[Marionnette]

The problem is there is bills to be paid and we want to take a vacation, we don't go on expensive vacations that much, last time to Disney was in 2007. If it were not for our income tax refund to pay for the trip completely we would not be going.

But see the income tax refund could also be used to reduce your bills by that much. Then maybe your husband wouldnt be feeling the pressure to pay them down so much. Your kids deserve a dad who is relaxed and focused on them when he is home from work. It wont be a relaxing vacation if he is thinking about how the money could have been better spent on reducing your debt. And one week of disney fantasy is not enough to offset the other 51 weeks of worry and frustration that burdensome debt brings.

 

[disneydreamersx4]

OP here - The more I think about the bills and what ya'll have posted I think it would be better if we put off Disney for a year or two and get the bills paid down or better yet paid off! We could always in the meantime, go on day trips like we did this summer. thanks everyone

 

[DawnM]

We love day trips! My kids love taking a picnic lunch too.

Most of our museums have at least one free day per month as well. We also have a $60 per family pass and it includes quite a few museums and zoos in the area.

Dawn

 

[Ava]

How does your DH feel about it? As bettymae said, both of you need to be comfortable spending money on a trip. The vacation will not be as fun if anyone is stressing out about the bills left at home.

I would look at your entire financial picture -

Do you have savings?
How much debt do you have?
How much would your trip cost?
Can you pay cash for the trip without dipping into your savings, and still pay your other bills on time?
Can you pick up some part time work, or do other things to earn extra money for the trip?

Personally I could not go on an expensive vacation (and WDW is expensive in my opinion, even when you do it as cheaply as possible) if I had credit card debt. I would work as hard as you can to pay off the CC debt before you go to WDW.

I hope you can come up with the money to take the trip, because it's obvious you really want to go. I'm trying to pay for our May 2011 trip with "found" money - money gotten from selling things, rewards sites, doing focus groups, collecting change, Disney Visa Rewards, etc. It's become like a game, I want to see if I can earn enough money for the trip without spending any of our regular income. Maybe you can sit down with your DH & work out a budget for the trip, then come up with some creative ways to "find" money to pay for it. You could also involve your kids if you want, since they are older. Earning money for Disney could be a family project. Good luck!

 

[minniemom92]

We have a mortgage, taxes, homeowners insurance, car insurance and life insurance. We have the normal monthly utility bills that are paid on time. We have a 401K and contribute modestly to college savings funds. We have one income. We have no other loans other than the mortgage. However, health insurance premiums go up yearly. Real estate taxes go up yearly. Children grow and need bigger clothing and eat more. Cost of living just increases. We have a comfortable nest egg. We all of those things going for us, I still am thoughtful about spending money on my vacations. We do go to WDW yearly. I still evaluate the financial status before booking every trip.

If I had debt that was unpaid at the time I was booking my trip, I personally could not sleep at night. I would feel like it was doing my family more harm than good in the long run. I am totally for family memories which is why I value my family vacations. But as I mentioned earlier, I evaluate everything to ensure my families financial safety after the trip as well.

 

[ccgirl]

I'm in the minority here. I have debt (credit card and otherwise) and still go to WDW. I do have a small emergency fund and am able to pay more than the minimums on all of my debts. Sure, I could take the extra money and pay down the debts quicker. But, I choose to take some of the extra and go out to eat, vacation etc. We both work but are also able to pay for all debts on one income if we really had to. We decided to really buckle down come January to pay down the debt but are going on one last hooray vacation before doing so. Even still, the WDW vacation is costing approx $2,000 for a 10 day vacation so I would say that was still a pretty low budget vacation. My answer would be; it would depend on what BOTH you and your DH are comfortable with. In our case, we were comfortable taking this vacation.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[ceecee]

Memories are free! Disney is not the only way to make memories for your kids, so that is a lame excuse. I would never charge a vacation and if I had cc debt, I would want to pay that off first. We took a Disney vacation and then a cheap 4 day get away to TN, 4 hours from home right before school started. DD is still talking about Gatlinburg and wants to go back. That cost 1/4 of what our WDW trip cost and that included back to school shopping.